Monday, February 8, 2010

On January 21, the paradigm of partisan politics shifted on its axis by 180 degrees.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled five to four that not only is a corporation just another person with all the powers and privileges of any person to sell, buy, lease, rent, issue securities, borrow, lend, manufacture, market or license others to do the same, it also has the near-absolute privilege of the freedom of expression under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

It is a complete reversal of a body of law that was enacted during the Theodore Roosevelt Administration to limit the power of corporations to endorse and advertise their preference for candidates in Federal elections.

What this means to voters is that they will soon be hearing from major American and multinational corporations in saturation advertising going into the primary elections on March 2.All such expression had been previously disallowed by campaign finance laws enforced by the Federal Election Commission.

President Obama called it "a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans."

The Justice who wrote the controlling majority opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission differed in his estimation of corporate privilege in this way.

"If the First Amendment has any force," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority, which included the four members of the court's conservative wing, "it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech....

"When government seeks to use its full power, including the criminal law, to command where a person may get his or her information or what distrusted source he or she may not hear, it uses censorship to control thought," Justice Kennedy wrote. "This is unlawful. The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves."

The ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, reversed two precedents. They are Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, a 1990 decision that upheld restrictions on corporate spending to support or oppose political candidates, and McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, a 2003 decision that upheld the part of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 that restricted campaign spending by corporations and unions.

The dispute in Citizens United stemmed from a made-for-sattelite and cable feature length film critical of Presidential Candidate Senator Hillary Clinton. The decision reversed a holding of the Washington, D.C., U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which upheld the FEC regulations.

In the 2008 election cycle, which coincided with the Democratic Party's victory over Republican candidate John McCain, Democrats increased their majorities in both chambers. Of the 435 congressional districts, 242 were carried by Obama, while 193 voted for McCain. Of the districts Obama won, 34 elected a Republican to the House, while 49 of the districts McCain won elected a Democrat.

In an all-out effort to win back the swing districts they lost in the two previous elections, Republican operatives are aggressively targeting districts and states where the Democratic delegation has been in place for a long time. Both parties have been preparing to defend seats that they risk losing. Democrats, who occupy more of the swing districts, are operating more on the defensive than the Republicans. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has highlighted 40 Democratic incumbents at risk in what is called the "Frontline Program."

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has in turn highlighted 10 Republican incumbents at risk as the "Patriot Program." They later added 15 additional names to the list, bringing the total to 25.

Though District 17 is not one of those districts so identified, it does have a Cook Partisan Voting Index of "R + 20." That is a figure derived from a formula devised by Charlie Cook of the Cook Political Report and Polidata, a political statistics and analysis firm. In the 17th District, Republican Senator John McCain secured 67 percent of the votes cast against Democrat Barack Obama.

Though an estimated 63 percent of registered voters in District 17 are Republican, Democrat Chet Edwards continues to win election after election.

The index for each Congressional District is calculated by averaging the two prior presidential elections and comparing them to national results.

The only Texas Congressional District considered at risk by the DCCC, the 23rd District represented by Democrat Ciro Rodriguez, stretches from just east of El Paso to the border city of Del Rio and takes in Pecos, Ft. Stockton, Uvalde and Cystal City as well as the Big Bend. The eighth-largest Congressional District in the U.S., it has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R + 2.

The best-financed candidate in the Republican Primary, Bill Flores, a retired CEO of a Houston oil and gas exploration firm, has a war chest of more than $400,000 - $300,000 of which he contributed from his own funds.

A "Pre-sorted Standard U.S. Postage" campaign mailing received by targeted voters late last week in the 17th District is a four-color job on slick card stock that reads this way.

This means that the Flores campaign organization will be taking on the expense of yet another mailing in response to these requests in the 17th District, a tactic that is as expensive as it is aggressive. It is no doubt geared to get out the Republican early vote before the Primary on March 2.

In all available polls, the Flores organization is reported to have scored less than 10 percent of voter approval.

The Flores war chest, cash raised for which is reported by the FEC as $416,466, compares with a total of $138,765 raised by the Rob Curnock campaign and $122,271 raised by the Chuck Wilson election committee. Candidate Dave McIntyre has reportedly raised $123,965, according to the website OpenSecrets.org

These figures compare with a war chest of $1,405,254 reported to the FEC by Democratic incumbent Chet Edwards.

Republicans estimate that he outspent Republican candidate Rob Curnock by 23 to one during the 2008 election cycle.